Burn Baby Burn

“No news on your sister?”
“No.” I sighed. “They’re closing in on a suspect though.”
She scoffed, unsuspecting of my lie. “Suspect, my ass. This is just like Taylor. Running away, putting everyone in a bad position. She’s probably at a halfway house, selling herself for--”
“She’s better, mom.” She’s not like you, I wanted to say. She wouldn’t abandon me for a stranger.
The sound of liquid sloshing in a bottle came through the phone as she took a sip of her drink. “Keep me posted, and pray for her, Andy. She’s gonna have hell to pay when she gets back.”
“Of course.” I wouldn’t count on it. “Goodbye.”
She wasn’t coming down to see if we were okay. Her “work” couldn’t allow her to leave on such short notice. I laughed bitterly and threw my phone down on my bed.
The lamp on my bedside table shook as I opened the top drawer looking for the piece of paper I’d written the sheriff’s number on.
He’d told me that he was sending men over to Alan’s house earlier in the day.
I grabbed something else instead and that’s when I remembered.
Taylor’s pocket watch sat in my drawer untouched since the day she’d given it to me. It was one of the many presents he’d showered her in. She hated it though and decided I should have it, even though I shared her sentiments; it was too hefty and unflattering. But there was a reason I’d kept it.
Inside was a little slip of paper with a phone number on it for me to call in case her cell was dead and I needed her.
It was Alan’s.

**********************************************************************************

“Please leave your message and I’ll get back to you--”
“Shit.” The sheriff was either asleep or he refused to answer my frantic calls. “Yeah, um Sheriff Downey its Andrea could you please call me back as soon as possible, its important.”
I shoved my phone back into my pocket blew on my frozen hands.
“Wha…” I’d pulled something out of my pocket. The coffee stained napkin. “Agent Dodson.”
My feet were already carrying me to the same spot I kept seeing in my dreams as my shaky fingers dialed the numbers.
“Hello?”
“Hello, yes! Dodson, Agent Dodson, thank god.” I messed my hands through my hair as I ran past the humanities building on my campus.
There was a slight pause on the other line. “Andrea?”
I smiled; I couldn’t help it. Hope swelled in me like a balloon.
“Yes, it’s me! The sheriff is busy and I need someone to--"
“Wha--ah, where are you? Are you okay?” He sounded hurried, shuffling noises echoing through the phone.
“The scene of the crime.” I breathed. “The parking lot behind the main humanities building, Parking Lot Z. I can direct you--”
A car door slammed. “We’re coming, okay? Stay where you are.”
“Hurry, please.” I hung up and a long breath escaped my scratchy throat.
The ground was spotless, the same smooth asphalt I was used to. Nothing to indicate that two people had spontaneously combusted in that exact spot. Tears welled in my eyes as I knelt in the space remembering her screams of agony.
My sister was many things, but she wasn’t careless when it came to me. Sure she smoked and drinked and didn’t always put herself first but she never let me worry, never had me taking care of her.
Our mother expected her to fall off the deep end like she did but Taylor was better than that.
I’d never nursed a drunk or hung-over Taylor, never washed her clothes to get rid of the stench of smoke and sex, never once cried over her unconscious body as she OD’d right in front of me.
I decided right there that I would find her myself, with or without help. I would never stop looking.
And when I found him, I would kill him.
My mouth opened as a sob escaped, but with a startling jolt I realized it wasn’t coming from me.
A loud cry sounded from the roof of the library and I stood up searching the skies until I saw her.
She rose up near the steeple her arms flailing around like she was fighting an invisible attacker, her back turned to me. “Miranda?” I squinted up at the wild figure.
She howled again and swung around, hair in her face, but I was sure. “Miranda!”
My feet carried me forward as she teetered dangerously close to the ledge. It was 10 stories up.
She wouldn’t make it if she fell.
Her back hit the stone bearing and she stood eerily still. I walked faster still shouting her name as she stiffly climbed up on the ledge spreading her arms out.
“Oh god.” I had made it under her when she fiercely locked eyes with me. The breath left my lungs as a fire seemed to start behind her wild gaze.
It looked like she was burning from the inside out.
Something hard slammed into me knocking me out of my trance. I trembled in Dodson’s arms, hyperventilating as horrified shrieks ripped their way up my throat.
She was staring so intensely at me that I hadn’t even realized she’d already jumped. Her body lay sprawled right where I was standing, limbs twisted in unnatural ways, her dead eyes still locked on mine.
I looked away into the officer’s chest, heaving broken sobs.
“Suicide, yes.” Everson recited into the phone. “MCU campus, the library…”
The cops, including Sheriff Downey, were on the scene and had yellow tape surrounding the perimeter in ten minutes tops. Miranda Jeffries had been missing for a week under the same circumstances as my sister expect no one was there to see her get taken; a relationship with the attacker, who’d given her expensive gifts, and a penchant for bad choices.
“She was a classmate…no I hadn’t seen her earlier in the week, she’d been gone for some time…I don’t think she was suicidal…no sir I don’t…..”
I monotonously answered their questions as my eyes stared blankly ahead.
“I don’t understand!” Miranda’s mother cried. “She’s been missing for a week and now you’re telling me…”
She trailed off and my stomach turned as I followed her gaze to the black body bag on the asphalt.
“Andrea.” Dodson nodded in my direction as he and Everson briefly flashed their badges at the officer questioning me.
He grabbed my elbow and pulled me aside. “Hey. You okay?” I glanced at the Chevy Impala I’d first seen in my driveway parked across the street.
“Well,” the sheriff lolloped over to us. “You boys have a knack for showing up at the right moments.” I stood stiff my arms tightly crossed as a sudden chill ran through me.
“Ten years in the service will do that to you, Sheriff.” Everson quipped.
The Sheriff leveled his gaze on me. “You too, Andrea.”
I said nothing.
“I got your message; what was so important?”
“A phone call I got from an unknown number.” I murmured. “I thought it could’ve been Taylor trying to contact me but I was wrong. It was a prank.” My voice faltered at the end and I stared at my feet.
He stared me down with a curious look on his face, before his expression relaxed and became sympathetic.
He fell for it.
“Bailey!” The rookie officer looked over at us. “Take Ms. Venez-Lang home please, she’s been through enough today.”
“They can take me.” All three men looked surprised. “If that’s okay, I mean.”
“These guys have a lot of questions to answer down at the station, honey.” He sighed and looked up at Dodson and Everson. “Be back here after you make sure she goes in okay.”
“Of course.” They promised. We’d only walked fifteen feet away when Everson said, “Okay what’s really going on?”
I looked at him, dumbfounded. “That was a convincing show back there but, come on, spill it, what’d you call the Sheriff about?”
I blinked. Again, they weren’t acting like their titles suggested. I was suspicious but trusting nonetheless.
We’d made it across the intersection to their car when I spoke again. “I think I have a way we can track down Alan. And save my sister.”